"Odets presents an often harrowing picture of frailty and vulnerability on a massive scale, and his book is a much-needed corrective to the complacent view that everything is basically OK in the domain of gay men's safer sex education. "In the Shadow of the Epidemic" will doubtless become an instant "locus classicus" for subsequent debate about the short- and long-term psychological impact of the epidemic and the types of intervention necessary to reduce wide-scale suffering."--Simon Watney, author of "Practices of Freedom: Selected Writings on HIV/AIDS"

Walt Odets is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Berkeley, California. A member of the AIDS Task Force of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, he has spoken and written frequently on the psychosocial issues of HIV-negative men and AIDS prevention for gay men. He is also an editor and contributor for the series AIDS Management: The Role of the Mental Health Community and a contributing author to Therapists on the Front Line: Psychotherapy with Gay Men in the Age of AIDS.